The educational benefit of the traditional didactic lecture to learners in Higher Education is hotly debated. Given increasing student numbers, existing technical set ups and many logistical concerns, lectures remain the norm in many Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). In this personal view piece, we discuss the benefits, opportunities, and…

The COVID-19 pandemic brought monumental changes to life around the world, including drastic changes to how traditional face-to-face (F2F) American university courses have been conducted. In Spring 2020, institutions of higher education had to move courses fully online (if they were mid-term) or in some cases end a term of F2F only to return from…

With the introduction of in-class group-based virtual reality (VR), multiple students can interact in a single shared "metaverse". One geography-focused group VR option is the Wooorld app, available on various Meta Quest unit models. To evaluate the feasibility of group VR in a higher education geography lecture classroom, a pilot study…

An important contemporary challenge to the large-group lecture in higher education is that it encourages passive learning which is claimed to be out of sync with academic rhetoric and social needs. Attempts to change this practice have salvaged some aspects of the higher education experience for students, but they have not transformed the learning…

In higher education, supporting students with special educational needs (SEN) necessitates an understanding of these needs, additional teaching aids and innovative ideas. The teacher must be an integral part of this support process, and this is difficult for the majority of teachers, due to their lack of core understanding of SEN. However,…

Previous work has shown that students' notes often fail to record key facts and concepts. The relatively recent widespread adoption of PowerPoint slides and handouts might now help students to record key issues, but only if they can recognize the cues that identify these. 238 note-sets were taken from first-year students attending four lectures…

Instructors of large, general education lecture courses face a number of student engagement and learning challenges. In this article, we develop and assess an interactive lecture that introduces a theoretical perspective and three related concepts to two introductory sociology general education classrooms (n = 433). This interactive lecture…

Abundant research and literature suggest the unreflective use of PowerPoint (PPT)-type presentations to deliver core content in higher education classes may have a negative effect on student learning (Driessnack, 2005; Kinchin et al. 2008; Maxwell, 2007). Many students rely heavily on downloadable notes from electronic delivery to the exclusion of…

There has been a rapid increase in the use of technology in university classrooms. Many university classrooms and laboratories include an overhead projection unit, computer, and connections for laptops. More recently, tablet PCs have been investigated as another way to effectively engage students in a classroom environment. This study summarizes…

These proceedings contain the papers of the 18th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2021), held virtually, due to an exceptional situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, from October 13-15, 2021, and organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society…

This article presents an argument for the use of networked interactive whiteboards (NIWBs) in regional Australian higher education and identifies new pedagogies for this context. Most Australian universities operate multiple campuses, and many use video conference facilities to deliver courses across these sites. For students at remote video…

This study is an experimental introduction of web-based lecture delivery into a majors-level introductory biology course. Web-based delivery, achieved through the use of prerecorded Voice-Over PowerPoint video lectures, was introduced on a limited basis to an experimental section while a control group, with the same instructor, received standard…

We evaluated the effectiveness of the use of an electronic personal response system (or "clickers") during an introductory psychology lecture on perceptual constancy. We graphed and projected student responses to questions during the lecture onto a large-screen display in Microsoft PowerPoint. The distributions of answers corresponded…

Tests the effects on student performance when using graphs as part of a University of South Carolina (Columbia) principles of economics lecture. Finds in 1995 that students in the lecture with graphs had significantly lower gain scores than those in the no-graphs lecture. Finds no significant difference in 1997. (RLH)

This study is presented as an exploratory research effort regarding students' perceptions of PowerPoint presentations used by college instructors in a basic Fundamentals of Public Speaking course. Data were collected to determine the outcomes in four primary areas: General Questions about PowerPoint use; Perceived Effectiveness of PowerPoint;…